Diablo III Beta Test Shut Down Date Announced

Blizzard's closed beta test for Diablo III will shut down on May 1, 2012, in preparation for the game's May 15 launch date. When the beta closes, all character data will be wiped.

Press were initially let into Diablo III's closed beta test in September of 2011, letting participants hack through a small chunk of the game's first Act. All five character classes were available to play through the content, which ended with a boss fight against the Skeleton King.

Throughout beta testing many of Diablo III's subsystems changed, most notably the rune system, which you can see in our video commentary.